Taua Tapu Track in Wellington – Day 73

It’s recording. So at the reception we see a map showing a loop walk the track is called the Taua Tapu Track.

Today we’re doing the Taua Tapu Track can’t pronounce it this one here oh yeah we’re going to walk up the road we’re going to go through the scenic reserve we’re gonna go all the way up here and then a massive lookout right here then all the way up here go up toward the track and then walk along the seaside. First up I need to go get my coat because it’s chilly. It’s winter.

So for two days now we have been staying in the Moana Lodge in Plimmerton but we haven’t actually explored the kapiti coast suburb here on a scale from one to freezing my none-existing balls off I am definitely freezing my none-existent balls off. Thank you very much for that Laura. Maybe you can think of a better sentence to say. So for the whole time we were at moana lodge we we so focussed on the beach which was looking really amazing right out of our window we really didn’t focus on what was behind and there’s a lot of lush luxurious hills not luxurious luxuriant hills pretty awesome.

After about 5 or 10 minutes walk we actually realise that there is whole forest range just in the back of the hostel. This half is going into the unknown and this one is oh welcome to my house. We’re walking through and straightaway we see two sort of make-shift bridges there’s like a bit of a dodgy looking bridge so I’m gonna check those out and walk back up and we’re going to get on our way this really was something we did not expect to find even before just before entering the forest we’ve seen like wood pigeons we’ve heard loads of different native birds there were quite a few nice plants as well very colourful. Laura is getting a little out of breath going up the stairs so she find s very convenient excuse that she has to take a few pictures so we stop halfway through and she takes a few pictures and catches her breath before we keep on hiking all the way up the mount.

We start getting higher up above the canopy and this is when the view starts to become quite amazing. So we don’t really mind the steep climb right here.

The rest of the walk in the forest is actually all uphill. And you know the thighs are burning I’ve got like legs of steel right here and because we went to Adrenalin Forest yesterday I am in my element I feel one with the trees right now so that’s all good. Once we get to the top there is a bench and you can guarantee that where there is a bench in New Zealand there’s probably going to be a viewpoint which there is we sort of stand on the bench to get a better look and we can see one part of Plimmerton just over the tree canopy there and it’s pretty awesome views but we actually see the best views when we start walking down the street. Laura what’s that island over there? It is Mana Island.

This one’s for you Instagram. We are making our way down passing through some pretty posh suburbs to be fair I think that’s where all the rich people in Wellington actually are living. We realise we’re back on the coast when we get to a Four Square which is a convenient store chain in New Zealand and I remember oh yeah, we ran out of bread. Let’s get some budget bread. So we’ve been to the Four Square, budget bread in hand, we are now gonna make our way along the coastline back to Moana Lodge. The first part of the coastline is actually a huge series of rock pools but they’re really cool in their formation they are all in a straight line out to sea like you can see how some sort of unusual rock formations and I guess tectonic plates and stuff have worked here to make some crazy like lines and erosion and stuff. And in the rock pools we see a few shells and seaweed and things some odd looking shells so it’s pretty cool to see and again we can see Mana Island across the water from here.

Well tomorrow we need to have some breakfast so Ihave some budget bread. A really huge amount of birds right now since Laura is carrying budget bread. But I learned my lesson from Whitianga and I am having none of it. those seagulls are gonna keep on looking at this bread and not having a single piece. But the seagulls are pretty relentless they will follow us the whole way up to the Moana Lodge this is about one k they keep on following us for 1km some of them are just walking behind but they are too lazy to fly even and some of them are circling around Laura is just scared of being shat on.

After being bashed by wind for the whole day it’s just gonna feel great to just warm up with a warm drink and a warm evening.

There’s a few walking behind us there’s a few like circling in the air we feel like this is going to be like the movie, you know that movie, the old movie Birds. It’s kind of one of those situations right here. We see Moana Lodge in sight we’re like Oh my god thank God there is shelter we can get away from the birds here.